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Gunmen holding over 200 children hostage in North Ossetia
This would be Basayev's MO, looks like he's building up to a big and bloody finale ... Armed attackers on Wednesday took at least 200 schoolchildren hostage in the southern Russian province of North Ossetia, Itar-Tass news agency quoted local officials as saying. Interfax news agency quoted local police as saying women and men wearing belts of explosives were among the attackers in the Ossetian town of Bislan, not far from the rebel province of Chechnya. A gunbattle broke out with police near the building after the assault on the school. It said at least one man had been killed in the shootout. The agency said the gunmen may also have attacked a second school, but other agencies did not confirm this. The gunmen staged their attack on the first day of the new school year. Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy in the region said: "At the moment police are being called to the scene. It is not immediately clear how many schoolchildren and parents have been taken. "There is a shootout in the area," the envoy, Vladimir Yakovlev said.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-01 |
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